The situation in Zimbabwe is desperate. It’s easy to feel nothing but helplessness. My instinct is to get angry at the slowness of the international community to do anything concrete in support of the Zimbabwean people, but is that justified? Post-Iraq, the thorny issue of intervention – and at what point it becomes acceptable – only seems to get less clear (Philip Bobbitt gives some reasons for that here).
The UN’s unanimous resolution condemning the violence yesterday has got to be a good thing, though I did flinch slightly at the phraseology used by Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon: “Conditions do not exist for free and fair elections right now in Zimbabwe. There has been too much violence, too much intimidation.”
As if a certain amount of violence and intimidation would have been acceptable?
Anyway Avaaz.org are here to give us the chance to make our voices heard against Mugabe. Sign their petition asking Thabo Mbeki and other Southern Africa leaders to help establish a legitimate Zimbabwean government.
Avaaz are amazing.